As Tory loonies revert to form, Ed Mil's the winner: Quentin Letts on YESTERDAY IN PARLIAMENT

The Loony Right has reverted to baleful form. Ukippers actually seem proud to be thought a nasty party and are making an Ed Miliband Government a rising possibility

These are reassuring days for the Labour party. They still have a rotten leader, they’re still pinking in the opinion poll ratings – yet they are going to win!

The Loony Right has reverted to baleful form. Ukippers actually seem proud to be thought a nasty party and are making an Ed Miliband Government a rising possibility. That suits the Faragists just fine.

When Ed Mil’ reaches No 10 and denies us the EU referendum which Cameron would have given us, the Ukip boys will have the Pyrrhic satisfaction of rubbing their hands on their Terylene trousers and saying, ‘See? we TOLD you the elite wouldn’t give us a vote’. Barking. They have been like this since Mrs T was knifed.

Yet as Labour apparently swan-paddles towards power, one problem persists for the Comrades: Ed Balls and his ‘economic policy’. Does he have one? Does he accept the need for deficit reduction?

The Chancellor has lost even more weight. What with that and the Caesar haircut, he looks almost moody and monochrome. Does he fancy himself a male model?

Over the summer, while the loonies were complaining about David Cameron taking a few days’ holiday, Labour pushed out some policy ideas. Mr Osborne disclosed yesterday that Treasury officials had looked at these proposals and had estimated their likely annual cost. It was £21billion. No one on the Labour side expressed disagreement with this sum.

Tory backbenchers, who have been looking a touch glum, were cheered by Mr Osborne’s bullishness. He claimed that the right-to-buy scheme had been a success – nowhere more so than in Leeds (where Mr Balls has his marginal parliamentary seat).

The Chancellor has lost even more weight. What with that and the Caesar haircut, he looks almost moody and monochrome. Does he fancy himself a male model?

When Stuart Andrew (Con, Pudsey) asked about levels of employment, Mr Osborne said 1.8million jobs had been created since 2010.

Joblessness in Pudsey – another marginal Yorkshire seat – was down by 31 per cent in the last year.

Up popped Labour’s Andrew Love (from Edmonton, north London) to moan that they were the wrong sort of jobs – part-time ones.

Mr Love sounded so gloomy, you might have thought he would prefer people to be unemployed.

Priti Patel, softly composed on her first ministerial outing, was able to crow about frozen taxes on petrol. Miss Patel, when under attack from Labour, showed an unusual nonchalance.

Dennis Skinner (Lab, Bolsover) removed smiles from Tory faces when he said, ‘Jobs are very good, business start-ups are very good – so why are all these Tory MPs jumping ship?’.

The proper answer to this is, ‘Because they’re bonkers’, but Lib Dem minister Danny Alexander settled for, ‘They have to make their own career choices.’

Speaker Bercow let backbenchers talk for much longer. His nerve may not have been shattered for ever but he certainly realises he needs to create no new enemies at present

Mr Balls teased Mr Osborne about his creeping Euroscepticism, saying it was simply a reaction to Boris Johnson’s manoeuvres.

Mr Osborne responded with a long story about how a local newspaper followed Mr Balls on a street visit the other day and an onlooker, seeing Ballsy, cried: ‘Look, it’s Gordon Brown!’

Speaker Bercow, his authority having evaporated, allowed the Chancellor to complete this anecdote. In days past he would have interrupted him. Bercow also let backbenchers talk for much longer. His nerve may not have been shattered for ever but he certainly realises he needs to create no new enemies at present.

The backbench business committee later heard a proposal to create a temporary body to consider the Commons Clerkship (the position Bercow was caught trying to nobble).

It means we could eventually hear from Saxton Bampfylde, the swanky City headhunters hired by Bercow to run the ‘recruitment process’ for the Clerkship. Saxton Bampfylde have been left looking like patsies.

MPs may want to ask if these top headhunters failed to do due diligence on Bercow’s favoured candidate for the Clerkship. Or were they muzzled by the Squeaker?